1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive information distribution system such as a video-on-demand (VOD) system. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing personal identification numbers within such an interactive information distribution system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recent advances in digital signal processing techniques and, in particular, improvements in digital compression techniques, have led to a plethora of proposals for providing new digital services to a customer's home via existing telephone and coaxial cable networks. For example, it has been proposed to provide hundreds of cable television channels to subscribers by compressing digital video, transmitting the compressed digital video over conventional coaxial cable television channels, and then decompressing the video of the subscriber's set-top terminal. Another proposed application for this technology is a video-on-demand system in which a subscriber communicates directly with a video service provider via telephone lines to request a video program from a video library, and the requested video program is routed to the subscriber's home via telephone lines or via coaxial cable television cables for immediate viewing. Other proposed video-on-demand systems use a frequency multiplexing technique to enable transmission of control information from the customer's location through the cable network back to the information server.
For any of these interactive information distribution systems, an access authorization technique is necessary to provide system security. Such security must restrict use of the system only to authorized subscribers, insure that unauthorized purchases of information are not made on a customer's account, provide content restrictions to insure that certain members of a household (e.g., children) are restricted from viewing certain types of information, and provide customer budget controls. Present systems merely request a customer to provide a personal identification number prior to accessing the service. As such, all customers are generally burdened with the requirement to enter a password every time the service is accessed. Furthermore, such password based systems do not differentiate between household members. Thus, the password permits access to all system services and information.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus of managing personal identification numbers and customer authorization within an interactive information distribution system to provide flexible and useful security measures.